Iowa Fines Clinton Doctor for Billing Practice

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  An Iowa board has fined a Clinton doctor for requiring cash payments from poor patients instead of billing Medicaid to treat their addictions to narcotics.

The Des Moines Register says Dr. Oduah Osaro was fined $2,500 by the Iowa Board of Medicine. Osaro has denied any wrongdoing and said his billing procedure was fair and common. He has declined to comment publicly.

Board documents say Osaro required patients to sign agreements that they would not ask insurance plans to pay for his services.

He charged them $190 per visit. If he’d billed Medicaid the patients would only have had to pay $3 co-payments. The board says that if Osaro had billed Medicaid, it would have paid him just $100 for each office visit.